Water change question

[JustinC]

I set up my tank about 7 weeks ago, Its a 75 gal w/ about 70 lb of live rock in it.
I'm using a 20 sump and it's got about 20lb of rock, carbon skimmer.

My stock list is:
5 blue damsels
1 fire shrimp
1 dimmond goby
A few red mushrooms and a star polyp


Just did my testing and everything is good

Salinity 1.024
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Phosphates 0
Alk 10dkh
Calcium 380
Ph 8 (little low)

So here is my question. I have not done a water change, only top off. Should I do a water change anyhow even though the chemistry all looks good?


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.278192,-86.543562

 

[Tabasco1]

I would, it's alot easier to keep things good than to try to get things better. Best practice would be to get on a regular schedule for water changes and stick to that. Some people go with once a month, heck some people get away with months , but I think you will see the most people have success with a smaller amount of WC every two weeks. That way the water chemistry is not changing drastically when you change your water.

 

[mobatic]

I would suggest only 10% water change biweekly.
Redundant water changes is never a bad thing unless you turn over more than 50% of your water.
Even at 50% that is a desperate measure to extract foreign pollutants.
It becomes difficult for beneficial bacteria to repopulate overnight.

Hope that helps.

 

[mobatic]

Ten Percent, not sure what happened with the text, I guess it went into coding mode when I typed in the percent symbol.

 

[Rockadile]

one thing I wold note is your top off water. Are you running a kalk stirrer or buffering your RO? if not you should consider using some reef builder or something to help keep your ph and alk in check here.

 

[swannyson7]

+1 to small, frequent water changes. There are several building blocks in a reef aquarium that the typical hobbyists doesn't test for including bromine, strontium, potassium, iodine, etc. These are used up by the organisms within our tanks and dosing cannot be completed without an entire chemistry set to test parameters. Every popular synthetic salt mix will have these trace elements at the proper ratios and frequent water changes is the easiest way to replenish them.

 

[bige]

one thing I wold note is your top off water. Are you running a kalk stirrer or buffering your RO? if not you should consider using some reef builder or something to help keep your ph and alk in check here.

You add buffer to your ro top off?

 

[Rockadile]

Well I dont because I have a kalk stirrer that my RO water goes through first. But before I had that yes I did.

 

[1tyme]

Dude u can do 5 gals a week and keep it moving. LOL. And stirr it with your hand in a 5 gal bucket.:bigsmile: On the real. Consistant habits r best. Weekly or biweekly. U still have a light load on system. Think u will be fine. Happy reefing. God Bless.:angel:

 

[JustinC]

Thanks guys. I was thinking about doing maybe 5 a week, just wasn't sure if I should since the water was "good". I am topping off with a ro and I have been using the ph buffer in it. Anything better that I should do?

As far as more in-depth testing like Your talking about, what would be good to get? Ex type/brand of tests to get? I've looked at some, just get overwhelmed with what would be best since the prices add up fast.


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.278192,-86.543562

 

[swannyson7]

To be honest, there's no need to test for everything as long as you're doing your water changes. The things that you should be able to test for are calcium, alkalinity, pH, magnesium, nitrate, phosphate, nitrite & ammonia. For clacium, I prefer salifert or Elos. For magnesium, I use salifert or red sea pro. For alk, I find lamotte and the hanna calorimeter to be the best. For phosphate, the hanna calorimeter is your best bet. The others can usually be bought in a kit and brand doesn't matter all that much IME. I believe the cheapest option would probably be one of the API reef test kits and that will include pH, nitrate, ammonia, and nitrite.

 

[shred5]

Yes do a water change. Water change is the single best thing you can do for your tank. I would recommend every other week changes to about no longer than a month. Smaller more frequent is the best.

Water changes are not only to add things to the water they are to remove things and those things we can not even measure for like toxins from corals or heavy metals.

Yea I know people who have gone a year with out changes and claim everything is fine, but I know some of those same people did have problems later on or are completely out of the hobby. Once things go wrong and build up it is hard to reverse so better to prevent. remember good things happen slowly in this hobby and bad things happen fast.

Dave Polzin.

 

[rjcranor]

I have a 50 gallon and change out 10 gallons monthly!

 

[compmania15]

Longest I have gone is 2 months. Even then everything was in check, looked good, and was happy. I try to do 10 percent biweekly.
My tank is going on 2 years old. I think with older tanks you can get away with it. I know someone who only does it evey six months.
Make sure you have a well balanced Eco-System. Plenty of sand sifters, snails and hermits.

That being said, the first year i did water changed every week. Only 5 gallons per week, but i think that went a long way to having a well established eco-system.

-Matt